The telecommunications industry is constantly seeking ways of reducing the high labor costs associated with operator assisted calling services while simultaneously increasing customer satisfaction. Because of the need to reduce labor costs, the trend in operator assisted call management is to automate as much of the task as practicable without sacrificing customer satisfaction. For instance, in some cases the caller is greeted and prompted for information by a recording made in the voice of a live operator, who comes on line shortly before the caller utters his or her request. Such a system improves efficiency and lowers labor costs because the automated response reduces operator work time and reduces operator fatigue by automating this initial greeting phrase. This type of automated response increases customer satisfaction because the partial automation of the system is transparent to the caller; the caller hears only one voice and is unable to distinguish the recorded message from the live operator.
In most current day systems, the operator interprets the calling customer's request and then communicates with a computer-based search algorithm and stored database via a conventional keyboard. The computer forwards the search results to the operator's screen, and the live operator releases the selected listing to the caller via an audio response system if an exact match has been found by the computer. If the computer finds multiple listings that match the search request, the live operator must then question, suggest, or identify the number with the caller's assistance. If the customer accepts one of these numbers, the call is released to the audio response system. If the customer does not accept one of these numbers, the operator often must give the caller a nothing found report, or engage in a second search if additional listing details are provided by the customer.
In an effort to further reduce labor costs, there have been numerous attempts to fully automate a telephone directory assistance system through the use of voice recognition technology and other technological advancements. For instance, U.S. Pat. Nos. 5,479,488 to Lennig et al., 5,659,597 to Bareis et al. and 5,638,425 to Meador, III et al. all teach automated directory assistance systems that rely upon a computer to play recorded prompts to the caller and then interpret the caller's responses with a speech recognition system. While such systems can conceivably lower labor costs, they unfortunately can result in a large decrease in customer satisfaction because speech recognition technology is not yet capable of effectively recognizing the voices of the entire pool of calling customers. In addition, even if the words spoken by the caller are recognized, there remains a significant probability that the computer will be unable to understand and translate the recognized words into a searchable query. Because of these shortcomings, automated systems must often rely upon live operators to act as backups when the automated system fails. Even when these systems perform correctly, customer satisfaction is often reduced because it is generally difficult to make the operation of such a system so transparent that the calling customer is unable to realize that they are communicating with a machine rather than a live operator assistant.
It should therefore be understood that the overall success of a directory assistance system requires an appropriate balancing of a variety of competing interests including calling customer satisfaction, job satisfaction of live operator assistants, labor and equipment costs associated with the system, and the satisfaction of subscribers who often pay to have their number listed with the director assistance service (e.g. Yellow Pages). Thus, the primary dimensions by which the success of a directory assistance system may be measured include: increasing the number of correct listings given by the system to caller requests; correspondingly decreasing the number of incorrect listings given out and thereby lessening the costs to the subscribers who pay for the service, if applicable; improving the interface between calling customers and the operator so that the utilization of new technology is transparent to the calling customer; and finally, improving the qualitative aspects of the live operator's job by introducing appropriate technology. Finally, in the telephone industry, every second, or a portion of every second saved per call can mean a literal savings of hundreds of thousands of dollars annually.
The present invention is directed to improving upon these and other aspects of directory assistance systems.